The Octal Organization
by Tarica
Summary: A visit from Drs. Carter and McKay leaves Sheldon in a state of shock, and his friends determined to figure out why they were there.


There were people in his office. Which wasn't entirely unusual, but normally the only people brave enough to risk altering something and consequentially, evoke his wrath were Leonard, Koothrapoli, Wolowitz, and Dr. Gablehauser. But these people weren't any of those people and Dr. Sheldon Cooper found that irritating at best and downright disturbing at worst. Because people were not supposed to be in his office.

One of them was blonde. Sheldon found himself almost desperately hoping that she wouldn't be lending support to the basis of ''dumb blonde" jokes the way Penny usually did. He wouldn't be able to stand the tediousness of it. And of course, that was neglecting the fact that people should not be in his office. They needed to be removed immediately.

The man in his office spoke first. To this point he was barely noticed, as he seemed to be intimidated by the blonde woman. Sheldon couldn't put his finger on it, but something about her reminded him of Missy right before she would beat him up as a child. No wonder the balding man seemed intimidated.

''You must be Dr. Sheldon Cooper. I am –

''well I don't know that I must be, however if you are asking if I am..." he swallowed somewhat nervously at the annoyed look the woman was giving him "I am."

''Um... Right." agreed the other man, temporarily thrown off. "As I was saying, I'm Dr. Rodney McKay, and this is Dr. Samantha Carter. We've come to see if you would be interested in joining a...think tank I suppose you could call it."

Sheldon responded with his favorite snort of derision. ''Me? In a think tank? Please." He shook his head to 'underline' his point, so to speak. "Not only would I be doing all the thinking, I deal with enough inferior minds here."

The slight smirk that appeared on the woman's - Dr. Carter's - face made him nervous as she spoke for the first time. "You would be working with the best physicists in the world on things that even you can't imagine, Dr. Cooper."

He gave another snort of derision. "Oh, I find that difficult to believe."

"Yes I suppose you would. After all, you can imagine things well enough to still be working on string theory." Dr. McKay commented, suddenly sounding a lot more sarcastic and a lot less intimidated.

"Exactly." Sheldon replied before his brain could take control of his mouth. He looked affronted at the insult to his field."Now wait just a moment."

Dr. McKay was opening his mouth to retort when Dr. Carter cut them both off. "Rodney, Dr. Cooper, now is not the time to bicker like children."

Dr. McKay looked chastened, and Sheldon looked completely affronted. He was quick to mentally adjust his original assessment of Dr. Carter's threat level from intimidating to downright scary. Even Leslie Winkle didn't rank a scary.

"Listen, Dr. Cooper. We'd like you to read through this packet before deciding anything. And trust me when I say that what we would like you to work on is far more fascinating than any of your work here." Dr. Carter gave a nod to her companion, and he pulled a thick folder from his briefcase, resting on the floor.

He was surprised to find himself accepting the packet Dr. McKay held out to him. He wasn't sure whether it was because he was frightened of what Dr. Carter would do if he didn't, or because he found himself wanting to believe them. The packet was heavier than he expected, and he was forced to set it on his desk to accept the clipboard Dr. Carter was suddenly holding.

"What is this?" he wondered as Dr. McKay slipped a pen between his fingers.

"Standard non-disclosure agreement." Dr. Carter explained, and for the first time Sheldon noticed the word 'confidential' stamped across the front of the folder now resting on his desk. He took a moment to skim through the pages of the agreement before signing. If it were top secret, it had to be something worth reading. At least more exciting than Star Trek re-runs, not that he would ever admit it.

Dr. McKay accepted the clipboard back and passed him a copy of the agreement he had just signed before slipping the original copy back into the briefcase.

"There's a number in there, if you have questions." He gestured at the packet on the desk.

"If you do call for any reason, make sure you can't be overheard." Dr. Carter ordered him. Sheldon didn't dare mistake for anything but a command. ''We'll be back in three days for an answer."

And with that, they left his office, bidding him good morning as they went.

* * *

Leonard Hofstader, Rajesh Koothrapoli, and Howard Wolowitz froze at the site of a brown haired man and a leggy blonde woman leaving Sheldon's office as they entered his hallway.

"Who was that babe?" Howard wondered in his typical fashion, drawing a hum of agreement from Leonard as the pair walked towards the other end of the hall.

"That was Dr. Samantha Carter!" Raj gasped as the pair turned the corner, allowing a brief glimpse of their profiles. "She's one of the top astrophysicists in the world!"

"So why was she visiting the crazy string man?" Leonard asked, frowning at the still stuttering Raj.

"The cute ones are always the craziest." Howard stated, reaching for the doorknob as he did so. His attempts to enter the office were futile however, as his hand twisted, but not the brass. Leonard raised an eyebrow at the sight.

"Did we really want to deal with his insanity right now, anyway?" Leonard questioned. The answer from Raj and Howard was immediate.

"Nah."

* * *

Leonard was confused when he didn't hear from Sheldon all day. The crazy man, so meticulous in his habits, hadn't even shown up for lunch, leaving Howard and Raj to formulate ideas on what Dr. Samantha Carter had been doing in his office. A five-minute internet search had turned up some interesting work on holograms, but beyond that, nothing specifically related to quantum physics and string theory. Raj had even mentioned that she didn't think she was actually working on holograms, and that the work was only in her name because during a security breach several years ago on the project, she had somehow been selected as the Air Force talking head.

They had also come across several internet rumors, some of which were factual, and some of which were completely absurd. The most radical rumor claimed that the show "Wormhole X-Treme" was real, and she was actually Stacey Munroe. They had a good laugh at that one. The most factual was one about her working at Cheyenne Mountain with NORAD on Deep Space Telemetry, supposedly to detect aliens. Howard even found the record for a reward she received from the President for the telemetry work. Leonard personally gave it 24 hours before Howard actually called his friend at NORAD for more info on her, like her number, address, and anything else he could use for stalking. At any rate, they couldn't find anything work wise that would cause her to visit Sheldon.

At 4:30, Leonard finally went to drag Sheldon out of his office, banging on his door for five minutes before the man emerged, looking peeved and clutching his messenger bag rather protectively. The man was completely silent the entire drive home. He didn't mention what he had been doing in his office all day, and didn't attempt to play any games to pass the time. Leonard suspected he could have taken Euclid Avenue without objection for the first time in years, but decided it wasn't worth the risk. He really didn't want to take Sheldon's class again.

When they finally arrived at the apartment complex, Leonard was forced to poke Sheldon to get his attention. The man didn't even acknowledge the gesture, and simply unbuckled his seat belt, opened the door, and left the vehicle. Leonard stared stupidly at the empty seat for a moment before grabbing his own bag and trudging up the stairs after his roommate. Upon arrival at the fourth floor landing, he encountered a stunned looking Penny. The door to the apartment was shut, Sheldon clearly already having entered.

"What's with crazy?" Penny asked, turning her confused gaze on him.

"Either the aliens have finally taken his brain…or…we don't know." Leonard replied, shrugging as he did so.

"I asked him how his day was and he said we were all just cannon fodder in the grand scheme of the universe."

Leonard raised an eyebrow at this. "Well, at least you got him to talk. That's more than we've managed all day."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."Penny muttered, before disappearing back into her own apartment.

Leonard took a moment to compose himself before entering their apartment, only to find that Sheldon was again, nowhere to be seen. The bathroom door was open, meaning his roommate must be in his room. He sighed and left his bag next to his desk on his way into the hallway. By the time he stopped in front of Sheldon's door, he had gathered enough wits to knock.

"Sheldon. Sheldon. Sheldon."

"What?" The door opened wide enough for Leonard to make out his left eye and part of his nose.

"Um…what's going on?" he asked grasping desperately at his wits that had scattered the second the door opened. "You didn't have lunch; you haven't spoken to anyone but Penny all day…"

"You couldn't handle it if I told you. Not that I can tell you. It's secret."

"You hate secrets. You hate keeping secrets from people."

"Yes, well. This one is most definitely for the good of mankind."

"Because we're all cannon fodder in the grand scheme of the universe?" Leonard doubted using Sheldon's line to Penny is a good thing, but still figured it was worth a try.

"Exactly." Was all he got before the door slammed shut in his face.

* * *

Leonard didn't hear a peep from Sheldon all prevening, and the man only emerged from his lair when he returned home with Thai food and Raj and Howard arrived for Halo night. There was an awkward silence as they ate, and Sheldon spoke not once the entire meal. In fact, as Leonard thought about it, he realized the last time he had seen Sheldon exhibit similar behavior to that being currently displayed, it had been following the realization that his Szechwan Palace chicken was actually from Golden Dragon. The way he was folding his entire body in on itself was indicative that something, some idea, some _knowledge_ in his little compulsive world had been drastically altered. And he wanted to know what the hell it was.

After half an hour of Halo, during which Sheldon died no less than 47 times, Howard finally lost his temper, and hit pause as he turned on their poorly performing friend.

"Look. I wouldn't care if you just sucked at the game, but you aren't even trying to win."

"Dude, he's right." Raj agreed. "Your playing blows. Not that I'm complaining." He was happy with the Hindu gods for putting him on Leonard's team.

Leonard just avoided his roommates gaze as Sheldon looked to him for confirmation. When he received none, the self-termed Homo-Novus turned on Wolowitz and Koothrapoli.

"I assure you that had you on your minds what I have on mine; your playing too would 'blow'".

"Yes, and what could the 'great' Dr. Sheldon Cooper have on his mind to distract him from Halo?" Howard wondered.

"Well, it can't be string theory." Raj drawled. "He's always thinking about that."

Sheldon, as expected, completely failed to notice the sarcasm in their voices. "Your puny minds are incapable of comprehending it." He stated delicately, and then placed his X-Box controller on the table and rose, quickly disappearing to his bedroom. Leonard did his best to look inconspicuous as his friends sat in a stunned silence.

"Okay, I'm calling my friend at NORAD. At least his normal crazy we know what the hell is wrong with him." Howard finally declared, snatching up his cell phone. He disappeared into the hall, and a few seconds later Penny entered and took his spot on the couch.

"Who's Howard calling?"

"His friend at NORAD."

Raj nodded frantically in agreement as Penny turned to him.

"Why?"

"To figure out what's gotten into crazy."

"Ah. Are you sure he hasn't finally gone 'round the bend?" She asked.

"No." Leonard replied. Raj shook his head as well.

A few moments later, Howard re-entered, staring in disbelief at his phone as he sat down next to Penny.

"What did he say?" Leonard questioned.

"He said he didn't have the security clearance to know what they're doing in Cheyenne Mountain, and unless we want to spend the rest of our lives in federal prison for threatening national security, we shouldn't try to find out."

Raj leaned past Penny and whispered in his Howard's ear.

"No Raj, I don't think the government would 'just deport' you."

The Indian's face fell.

"Well in that case, I'm going to go back to my apartment, and let you guys decide if finding out what's wrong with crazy is worth life in federal prison."

"See you tomorrow, Penny." Leonard said as she headed for the door.

"Good night, Leonard."


End file.
